British art expert discovers that ‘copy’ of Antwerp master Anthony Van Dyck may be the original after all

Christopher Wright has been an art historian for some fifty years and has already been able to uncover various paintings by old masters from public and private collections. But he had never paid much attention to the painting he hung on his wall at home. In 1970 he bought a painting for about 78 euros which he thought was a copy of the portrait of Isabella van Spanje by the Antwerp painter Anthony Van Dyck.

It was Colin Harrison, senior curator of the European collection at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, who pointed him to the painting. He was visiting Wright and saw the work hanging on the wall there. Because the hands are so well painted, according to Harrison it could be a real Van Dyck.

Wright therefore decided to take the painting to the Courtauld Institute of Art in London where it was examined and restored. “It was dirty and had yellow varnish, but it was in good condition,” he said. “The work now looks beautiful.”

It was concluded that the painting was made between 1628 and 1632. The Courtauld Institute report notes that several such portraits were made in Van Dyck’s studio and that it can be “quite challenging” to determine in the extent to which his assistants were involved. Their conclusion: “The skill leads us to the tentative suggestion that it can be attributed to Van Dyck’s workshop and that it was completed during his lifetime and under his supervision.” (sgg)

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